When Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler went down with a groin injury in Week 7, he promised to beat his four-week time table. Now it appears he has -- Cutler was cleared to play by the Bears medical staff. Head coach Marc Trestman has said Cutler will be back under center for this week’s contest against the Lions.
This doesn’t really affect the values of the Bears skill players -- Josh McCown had little problem finding them all on Monday night. However, Cutler is owned in just 45 percent of Yahoo! leagues as of this writing. In the games he’s finished (Week 7 with Washington is therefore excluded), Cutler has averaged 22 fantasy points and has been remarkably consistent, scoring under 20 points just once from Weeks 1-6. That’s solid quarterback play available on a lot of leagues’ waiver wires.
There is some concern that Cutler may not be fully healthy, since the original time table called this a month-long injury. Cutler is returning after two weeks. Yet after the strong performance of McCown in two games this season, the Bears probably wouldn’t have thrown Cutler out there if he was moving around poorly. Take the risk and jump on Cutler if he’s available. Feel free to start Cutler as well if you don’t have a Peyton Manning or Drew Brees as your fantasy signal caller.
But not every injured player should be immediately inserted back into fantasy lineups.
Not so fast
Roddy White has said he’ll play this week against the Seahawks. Not only does a difficult matchup against Richard Sherman await him, but White has been so hampered by injuries this year, it’s hard to say for certain what level of player you’ll be getting. It may be the guy who battled through injuries over the years to be a top fantasy receiver or the guy who this season has a total of 12.9 fantasy points in five games. Unless you are desperate, start someone else instead.
Rashard Mendenhall also appears likely to return from injury this week. Not only is he still battling turf toe, which isn’t going away, but he also hasn’t been very effective when has played. Mendenhall has scored over 10 fantasy points just twice this season. Andre Ellington has done it three times despite less usage.
The good news here is that Mendenhall isn’t going to cut into Ellington’s value too much. The rookie was never going to be a true workhorse back, and the Cardinals likely want to get him more work out of the backfield. Ellington owners can use him as they would normally. Mendenhall owners should avoid using him at all.
Pierre Thomas owners, unfortunately, will be negatively impacted by the return of Darren Sproles. The disappointing thing is how ineffective Sproles has been in recent weeks, with just 9.6 fantasy points in his last four games. Even if you take out last week’s game, where he was concussed early on against the Jets, Sproles only has 9.4 points in three games. Thomas nearly had that in his last game against the Jets alone thanks to his seven catches for 66 yards.
Thomas may still have flex value because he will still be the early-down back over the ineffective Mark Ingram. But what had been a potentially juicy matchup against the ninth-friendliest defense to running backs is no longer as nice with the loss of the reception boost Thomas would have had.
As for Sproles, he should not be started in standard leagues. Even points-per-reception league owners should be wary of using him after his poor performances over the last month.